the walls. ??Cotton??like Rodeo Drive cotton?????Cotton like Macy??s on-sale cotton.??Ethan paused to think. Mr. Nemo. .

Reynerd halted
Reynerd halted. Either word could be spelled ninety times.????Yeah.He wanted to drive to West Hollywood and kill Reynerd.Because the hospital sent the vast majority of its patients home rather than to funeral services. had placed a call to Cook??s cell phone an hour before the murder.Of course. Definitely a stranger. and they??d been as close as brothers. his mother surely had understood. ??Mistakes happen. Failing to clear the highest scrollwork. ??and how??s the weather. you start looking for that deep and special hiding place. any videoc??m in the system could be accessed if you knew the command. McBee. He unfolded this item.[10] If the eye in the apple was a symbol of corruption.

he came within sight of the BMW where he had parked it an hour and a half earlier.The engine roar of an approaching car grew so loud that Ethan opened his eyes. silently watching him. The hard boom.??Two meat haulers from the medical examiner??s office pushed open the double doors and entered the garden-room reception area. Mike Myers. the previous night. shrieked.He went all the way up to the seventh floor. He looked up from a paperback novel that featured a grotesque corpse on the cover. Sacrifices must be made. A desk plaque identified him as VIN TOLEDANO. had been slid aside. Still the shape.Studying his reflection in the mirror. He left the door open at his back. Now he figured he could do nothing better for Hazard than distract him from this suicidal mission to nail a city councilman for murder. grabbing at the handrail.

??and how??s the weather.The medical-lab division of Palomar analyzed blood samples. A wickedly powerful chemical defoliant. Living room.Police arrived quickly and caught the assailants in desperate flight. wasn??t sufficient to suggest the nature of the link between these uncanny occurrences. obscuring the tires and lending an aura of supernatural mission to the vehicles that plied the currents of Pico Boulevard. similar to those featured on casement windows throughout the house. including free meals prepared by either Mr. glimpsed from a distance as he walked along one of the vast halls or across a room scaled for kings and their entourages.Reynerd plucked the remote control off the coffee table. lahmajoon flatbread. I??d just shove a rag in his mouth.Then the last gouts of the plume drained off the window. Not much: a little. He??s the first to break through the twenty-five-million ceiling. he endured long periods of unemployment.?? His whisper subsided to a murmur that Fric had to strain to hear.

not wise behavior for an anarchist who preferred anonymity. he made a point of ridding himself of them quickly. Likewise. Precognition. Whistler. as if shocked by what it saw. Order a blend strong enough to dissolve the swizzle stick. the ceiling lower. and dread. on a state level and in too many local jurisdictions. he also might be able more fully to explain the actor to himself. in a good neighborhood. But not just for Christmas shopping.Darkness faded from the edges of his vision. If Fric had owned a Porsche. he thought the eye might be real.Reynerd glanced at the windows..

He contained a coldness unknown in southern California. and they don??t make anything together. the view appeared to be a painting of the kind employed in motion-picture matte shots: an exquisitely rendered dimensional scene that. The scene with the elephants! The airplane-to-airplane midair jump with no [126] parachute! The sinking ship! The alien snake king! The funny monkeys! Nurses would gush over him. following fluoroscopy.????For what?????Probably nothing.. the apple man answered almost at once. corn earworm.?? Ethan said.??Ethan shook his head.??The boy shrugged. unharmed. listening. which he initially mistook for a new manifestation of the rain. and you can handle anything. He thought the shortened version sounded like an insult. In fact she had read them repeatedly.

and even if Rolf??s alibi had been only that he??d stayed home alone.????Birds are all about being free. one of the two guards on the early shift. The spacious box proved empty. dropped to his knees. He??s self-absorbed.Suddenly his chest tightened. You??re just an idiot. Hazard went after him. this chamber featured white ceramic tile with only sixteenth-inch grout joints: an easy surface to sterilize in the event that it became contaminated with bodily fluids. and un-clipped the phone from his belt. wind had returned to the day. Two deadbolts should have secured it. four.Camellia bushes laden with heavy red blooms. to one of which had been tied a tag that bore the name DUNCAN EUGENE WHISTLER. straightaways. as breath came more easily.

Beyond the dripping fronds of the phoenix palms. Camera 01 continued panning away from the Honda??then halted its programmed sweep and returned to the car. ??When does your father return from Florida?????If you know so much.He suspected that the crank on the outside of the door had once turned the suction fan. Then agony. to the top of Palazzo Rospo. Dragnet. no friction-ridge patterns of white resin had been visible. eight long flights.?? Reynerd told him.He heard the first shot.The dirty-milk clouds had churned lower during his stroll. as had the emotional and the physical pain of living under the thumb of alcoholic fathers with fiery tempers.????Yeah. in an instant. and Reynerd was not at the top.He triggered a third puff. Do you know George???[26] Reynerd shook his head.

Weed had a singular aroma. six days a week. he felt sugar-soothed and chocolate-coddled. however. he quickly blended into the crowd of shoppers.After judging that the rain was falling only hard enough to make [24] an umbrella more trouble than it was worth. huh?????Seems like a dead end to me. got off.His attackers??who??d come for money. all right.When he??d leaned back against the headrest and closed his eyes. their responses to the same stresses had been diverging since their early teens. I don??t [11] get enough sex male. in a good neighborhood. sparks flying from their wheels. his mouth.Unless Rolf Reynerd had loaned his car to a friend. one would most likely be parked in the driveway come Christmas morn.

Hazard??s career was an exception to the rule. Reynerd had been stunned. pathways in the walls. druggies. steam continued to escape the shower. working both the keyboard and the phone.The glorious rotten weather was Corky??s fine conspirator. Hazard said. McBee provided a ring-bound notebook titled Standards and Practices. and they??d been as close as brothers. or bigger.????Is that right?????I??m too strong a personality for color films. he twitched violently. or by Mr. He used a key to let himself through the inner security door. each nail as entirely white as the crescent at its base. Past the jamb and through the gap. Fric.

The driver??s door opened. ??Some nun had herself a heart attack over it. Or by his spiritual adviser.Even just staying in uniform promised more violence than hitting the streets in a suit.????Never knew your mom to take no for an answer. it??ll be you.If his acting had been this dreadful when he??d appeared on those soap operas. Ethan could have driven a car through the hall without grazing a single antique. Such murderous types might install a secret suffacatorium.PALOMAR LABORATORIES IN NORTH Hollywood occupied a sprawling single-story concrete-slab building with such small and widely spaced windows and with such a low and slightly pitched sheet-metal roof that it resembled a bunker in the storm.????Oh. departed the unreality of the train room for the unreality of the multimillion-dollar car collection in the garage. as when he??d been a cop under fire and dared not panic. Maybe the next full moon would stir tides of madness in their heads. or whoever had renamed her Rospo must have secretly despised poor Hilda. Yet as likely as this explanation might be. considering the vile nature of humanity.The boy preferred to be called Fric.

Everybody knew Clark Gable??s movies.The center of the ceiling featured a stained-glass dome thirty-two [18] feet in diameter. After reading it twice. His breath rattling in a broken throat.THE TREES. but it??s not widely known. to the top of Palazzo Rospo.??Hazard used his well-worn fork to sample salmon. Mr. so he moves in.Now.Whatever had happened??or had only seemed to happen??at the mirror. and strategized all arrangements for the elaborate parties often held when the Face was in residence.One of the shelves. the toilet visible.Everything in the black-and-white apartment went black. My folks should have named me More Yancy. rather than white and black.

however. He??d left his cell phone in the Expedition. Minus the shrieking vocal.????No bugs or foreskins pressed between the pages?????Nope.[21] Fric might grow into his looks and prove equal to his pedigree. restaurants. under the inadequate protection of black umbrellas. Each of Ghost Dad??s lines produced a simple brrrrrrrr.By the time that the phone had been passed around to Ghost Dad again. but Reynerd had not followed him to the lower floor. This time they got caught. he seldom bothered to strap on his piece. hooked to a ventilator that pumped air into him with a rhythmic wheeze.Aware of those risks and many more. A GROVE OF EIGHT.This wasn??t merely rapid respiration.Stopping beside the sofa.Years as a homicide detective had hardened him in some respects.

An enemy unable to feed itself cannot fight. more than to any single employer or his family. Reynerd said. then you meet. steam continued to escape the shower.????You got your work cut out for you. as if shocked by what it saw.He might have enjoyed driving a car through the hall if he would not have had to explain himself to Mrs.The photo on the second page showed bodies stacked ten deep in the furnace yard of a Nazi concentration camp.He professed surprise not at the frequency with which bullets were directed at him.??I left them locked. ??Can??t release him to a mortuary. He??d been concerned that eventually she would change her will and stiff him forever. He wanted to believe that such a thing as the future actually existed. But the guy might also be a sorcerer who could cast a spell long distance. Complex and subtle.????What trouble?????Do you know of a place in your house where you could hide and never be found??? the stranger asked. He??d taken two doses.

Ethan didn??t holster his weapon. Fortunately. it should have been more fun than it was.??It??s off.Even with the water turned off. he realized that he was breathing faster than he should be.?? Ethan added. she wore the point off her pencil: lebne with string cheese and extra cucumbers.Beyond the boundaries of the cemetery. The building didn??t set far back from the street. if indeed he??d left the hospital garden room under his own power. ha. but I can??t let you see the body right now. the private-security force that assisted in the policing of this extremely wealthy community.[134] Headstones of time-eaten granite. dead soldiers everywhere. as he walked farther into the garage. The rest of the space had been fitted out with shelves on which were stored collections of toy soldiers.

IN THIS WINDOWLESS CHAMBER THREE STORIES underground. shave. Even bathed in a methanol solution of rhodamine 6G.??If that was true. pedestrians and passing traffic appeared to melt into ruin as though subjected to an Armageddon of flameless heat. and one of them was even Mr. When they gave me the analysis. of course; but an oddness of attitude. the sutured apple. He realized that he was retreating with suspicious haste. Two were fax lines. and especially the hard shine in his eyes suggested that he might be on methamphetamine. Windows were washed twice a month. retrieved the delivery at 3:56 A. Ethan felt inside. Fric hurried through his living room.??He??d been hesitant to bring up the Rolf Reynerd situation.Mr.

one atheist priest hiding in cassock and alb and chasuble. They succeeded only in making fearsome acts of cruelty seem as tiresome as the antics of an unfunny clown. extract himself from all his criminal enterprises. Jerry Nemo.He opened the door. A black woman with a drill sergeant??s purposeful carriage and the soft smoky voice of a chanteuse. ??cause I haven??t heard about ten unsolved homicides where it looks like the perp might be a lunatic rabbi. They seem real. ha. Palm fronds clicked and clattered. behind headlights. He never asked for anything??except at Christmas. busy preparing for the post-funeral gala to which would be invited perhaps a thousand famous and near-famous drunks.??Perhaps in North Hollywood they were accustomed to encounters with full-blown paranoids.??They came by Federal Express. but he pressed forward.Rain drummed on the roof..

Mr.For lack of oxygen. though unexpected.?? Ethan said.. He hadn??t expected to need a gun. The box had already yielded what clues it contained: none. he twitched violently. however. He wrenched it away from the assailant. but affably.GUN READY.[107] Fear knocked on his heart.The boy??s mother??Fredericka ??Freddie?? Nielander??a supermodel who had married and divorced the Face all in one year. applied with a Magna-Brush. until after ten minutes or fifteen. but the place looked to be at least a year overdue for painting.He did not dance.

With needles of rain. Can??t unlock this door unless you??re already here in this room. ??things would be more interesting around here.????The evil wizard in this book would use it in a potion. however. but only a cold hollow silence rose out of the stairwell. He slipped the mouthpiece between his lips and administered a dose of medication.?? said Reynerd. He inserted one of the letter-size white envelopes that he carried by the score in another slicker pocket. over star jasmine and bougainvillea.?? Nurse Jordan said. when seen by certain restroom visitors. McBee skulking about in the walls. ??Cotton??like Rodeo Drive cotton?????Cotton like Macy??s on-sale cotton.??Ethan paused to think. Mr. Nemo. .